Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin – Leader of the Greens) – Honourable Speaker, I rise to talk about a very deeply serious matter tonight that I would expect should concern all members. It relates to outstanding questions relating to actions taken or not taken by senior members of Tasmania Police and the state government in relation to former police officer Paul Reynolds.
It’s well known that Reynolds abused and exploited teenage boys over a period of at least 30 years. The facts of that were established by the Weiss Review, which reported to government last year. However, despite this review being undertaken, a number of serious and important questions remain about Reynolds and the institutional responses to his actions, responses made during his life, and after his death. These questions continue unanswered because the Weiss Review’s terms of reference were too narrow, and its powers too weak to enable a full and proper examination of relevant matters.
This problem has again been rearticulated in recent days in the latest episode of the podcast Badge of Betrayal, produced and hosted by Jay Walkerden. The series takes a close look at the Reynolds matter and in the new episode, episode 3, Mr Walkerden speaks to a currently serving senior officer in Tasmania Police. The police officer is unambiguous. He describes the Weiss Review as, ‘A failed inquiry.’ To be clear, the police officer doesn’t blame Regina Weiss, who was the appointed reviewer of the Paul Reynolds investigation, for the failure. Not at all. What he says is that, ‘The terms of reference, when you look at it, never allowed it to be successful.’
I don’t think we can overestimate how much bravery it would take or how much concern this officer must hold in order for them to speak out, but we are so glad that they’ve done this, and that Mr Walkerden has given them this platform because since the day the government announced the Weiss Review, the Greens have maintained it was set up in a way that made it impossible to answer the questions that need to be answered for the full truth to come out. The government did not initiate this review because they thought it was necessary or the right thing to do. They were pushed into it after the Greens publicly called for actions and after other members of parliament supported our call. When the government conceded and announced a review would occur, the terms of reference were written personally by the Police Commissioner. We expressed our strong concerns about both the narrow scope and weak powers of the review. In particular, we criticised the fact it did not cover an investigation about the decision to award Paul Reynolds with a full‑honours police funeral. I quote from my statement from that day, 6 October 2023:
It is good news to see an independent investigation has been announced, but we are troubled to see the inadequate terms of reference that have been set by the Commissioner of Police. It also appears the investigation has not been given the power to compel witnesses, order the production of evidence, or refer individuals for prosecution. This investigation should be empowered to look at this deeply serious issue in full without being hobbled from the outset.
A week later I wrote to Police minister, Felix Ellis, to reiterate these concerns and suggested a much more comprehensive terms of reference. Minister Ellis denied this request and I still don’t know why he wouldn’t want to do everything to make sure the review was comprehensive.
The Weiss Review was released on the 4 July 2024. As predicted, it left important questions unanswered. At the time I made a statement that called for further action, saying:
This report has shone a light on extensive abuse. However, unfortunately, it did not have the scope to address all relevant matters or sufficient powers to undertake the full investigation required. We called for the government to refer the unanswered questions about Paul Reynolds with all available evidence to the Integrity Commission so it could do a complete investigation with the powers it needed to compel evidence, but this was not done.
Again, I can’t find a sensible reason to explain why Police minister Ellis has never taken these steps.
As a result of this inaction, it is still the case today that the questions about officer, Paul Reynolds, known to have exploited and abused boys over years, have not been satisfactorily investigated, and critical questions remain unexamined. The Greens are very concerned about this matter
I foreshadow that I will further contribute to this matter tomorrow evening.
